Disruptive Advertising

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of sales and marketing of a conglomerate of brands selling direct-to-consumer products online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

Firstly, we wanted to have our Google Ads account unsuspended because we had troubles with that and couldn’t work with Google on our own. Additionally, we wanted to run more profitable advertising campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Disruptive Advertising provided us with strategic and account management services, focusing on our Google Ads account. We initially provided them with information about our brands, and they also did some market research.

For the campaigns they created, they first came up with an advertising strategy. After our approval, they implemented that strategy on our Google Ads. They were also in charge of copywriting and content creation, choosing the keywords to use. Additionally, they chose the type of campaign depending on the strategy.

What is the team composition?

After getting set up, we only worked with one person from Disruptive Advertising, who was an account strategist. However, I know that other people were working on our project behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

Disruptive Advertising came as a referral; I heard that they did good work.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid Disruptive Advertising about $3,500 per month on advertising management. In total, we spent around $28,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2021–April 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Disruptive Advertising solved the issue of our Google Ads account being suspended, which was a very successful result by itself. After that, we also saw some success in our cost per conversion; we saw it decreasing month by month. However, as far as the profitability of the ads, the most we could achieve was to break even, which meant that we were still losing money month by month after paying for their services. Thus, we decided to end our relationship. 

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

Disruptive Advertising was very clear, and their level of communication and transparency was good. We were very happy working with them because they were very professional and timely, and they worked relatively fast. Our only issue was that we weren’t seeing the growth we hoped for.

Regarding our communication, Disruptive Advertising was very responsive to emails, and we had weekly Zoom calls to review the project. They also sent me documents with the strategies they wanted to implement so that I could approve or disapprove them. They also asked for my approval for any major changes they wanted to make to the account, which I appreciated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Disruptive Advertising had a more regular call cadence compared to other companies we’ve worked with; we really appreciated the regular communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know if this is something that Disruptive Advertising could have done better, but if they had managed the campaigns differently so that we could see success, we would have stuck with them. However, they did a great job, and I feel like they did everything in their power to make the campaigns perform well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have a large advertising budget of over $10,000 per month, I recommend working with them. However, if you have a smaller budget, maybe they’re not an option for you. We were spending a small budget on our campaigns, but their management fee was costly, so we were spending more than what we were getting back.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Director for a CCW company. We create and syndicate a ton of content and manufacture CCW holsters and related gear.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising?

We were looking to fine tune and outsource our Facebook and YouTube advertising.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Besides the fact that they are local to our state, they have worked with some other companies in our network. We like people who have worked in our nuanced industry.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After a few discovery sessions they took what we said and ran with it. We did have to provide/produce some of the creative because our specific products and industry requires a lot of nuanced knowledge. But that's been fine! They still do great work perfecting the ads themselves. They set weekly meetings to make sure we are getting the most out of our ads and discuss strategies.

What was the team composition?

We get to work with our own pro that I'm guessing is assigned to us based on our needs and industry.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have had many ads that set a pretty high bar for effectiveness. Some that perform much better then anyone could have expected.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I really appreciate the weekly meetings and updates. But more importantly I appreciate that I can reach out with any problems and they do the same, proactively.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We appreciate their proactive approach and constant attention to our account. It's obvious that they really care.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

Other ways of communication, outside of email might be nice. Also a better way to provide assets.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Marketing Assistant at a custom window and door manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising, and what were your goals?

We were looking for a reliable and efficient group to manage our Google and Microsoft ads. Not only to generate traffic for our everyday business but also to amp up traffic for coming soon new releases.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We met with Disruptive Advertising after shopping around with other companies in the running. Disruptive was the one that stood out most not only with their knowledge and spot on ideas to our ultimate goals but also with their friendly, quick, and responsive team.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

After our initial kick off meeting, Disruptive Advertising was quick to understand our business needs and goals. From jump, the team was able to show their work and take our vision beyond what we had expected in the best way possible. For nearly two years, we have been seeing nothing but excellent results with Google Ad and Microsoft Ad charts.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have worked and are still working with an account manager, marketing consultant, and creative strategists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have never seen as much traffic to our website as we do now in the past. Ad clicks are up by measures and an overall jump in web clicks has shown itself since DA took us on.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Web meetings are done on a bi-weekly schedule. If any questions or concerns are brought to our attention in between these meetings, questions are answered in a timely manner. Tristin Smith truly has changed the way we show our online presence for the absolute best. Working with Tristin is such a pleasure and we can count on him to take us to the top.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The attentive ways the team at Disruptive Advertising goes above and beyond my expectations. From Day 1, we never felt an urge to move on to a different company. We are beyond happy with our team at Disruptive Advertising.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None that I can present.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing manager for Panda Windows and Doors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising, and what were your goals?

We were not having good luck with our past PPC agency, both in terms of results and responsiveness. We'd done massive improvements to our website to improve our lead conversions and wanted to generate as many qualified leads as possible in short time.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

After doing our research we selected Disruptive Advertising. They were extremely responsive and had great reviews.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

We had many pre-launch meetings to ensure they understood our product mix, target audience, budget, and goals.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked closely with a few different reps and each one was great.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our leads have more than doubled, despite a tremendous amount of new competition in our space. They also helped us create a datastudio portal for analytics which enables us to take a deep dive into our campaigns with clear, simple reporting. Our campaigns continue to be optimized and improve month over month.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They had a deep understanding of our industry. Their team is committed week after week to helping us improve the return on our PPC investment. Tristin, our most recent rep, is a true member of our team and always handles any requests quickly.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their commitment to staying on top of PPC trends makes them well worth the investment. We don't worry about budget waste with them monitoring our accounts.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

no

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I have been consulting with a non-profit on improving their advertisement pipelines.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising?

We were looking to revamp our advertising and improve our digital reach. Our previous marketing efforts were not able to connect with new audiences and were unsure about interpreting qualitative data. Our CRM intake was also lacking in engaging email campaigning and correspondence. Disruptive was hired to help audit and propose solutions for those services. We engaged disruptive to also produce and lead content for those services in a unified campaign that we would A/B test.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I work with a few businesses to augment their production pipelines, and their marketing needs have ranged from digital service to education. I've worked with Disruptive in two separate companies and manged them directly in one.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The first scope item was to audit our current pipeline to identify opportunities and recommend solutions. Disruptive was open and honest with their assessments and provided adequate solutions that were performance driven and budget conscious. From there, we engaged them for 6 months to build campaigns that yielded a colossal increase in our leads and quality of our lead pipeline.

What was the team composition?

I worked closely with:

• Madison as my strategist for social
• Jonni as my strategist for CRM + email campaigns

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

I've worked with a few agencies in the past, but what I love about Disruptive is they aren't afraid to say no and push for excellence. Clients that try to micromanage or influence their performance-driven results will find this not a great fit. They aren't afraid to let the data speak clearly and to pivot in strategy. If you want a clear direction without biases, Madison and Jonni will keep you on trajectories for your goals.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our workflow is that we build our strategy and interpret results bi-weekly, so we get a good sample measure before big decisions are made. We're always one step ahead of the next iteration and proactively planning instead of reacting. Madison and Jonni's ability to work between their two departments keeps goals in a well-meshed rhythm

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I will always say that there's the most power in any company rooted in their people. It's the experience of the people that makes this company easy to work with. They will treat you like a partner, not a client. If anyone cannot find the value in that, you're not ready to grow.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

My only hindsight is wishing I had more resources to throw their way to help us grow more aggressively.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of a consumer product company. One of our company's major plan this year is to leverage paid ads to grow our sales on Shopify. We sold $5m last year through other online channels, so it's market proven products. But we don't have much history on Shopify sales, facebook ads or google ads.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising, and what were your goals?

We hire them to manage google ads and facebook ads for us.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We carefully researched, screened and interewed 7 or 8 agencies, all of which are highly reputable, top agencies, and finally landed on Disruptive Advertising to manage our google ads and facebook ads. I came from a research background so I've always been pretty confident in my research and results.

At the time of signing, it was a big relief to me and I thought I found a good partner that will - not to say take me to the moon, but at least grow the ad sales gradually.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Instead of to the moon, it went straight the other way. And at the end of the first 30 days, and on the exact date of my 39th birthday, I had to terminate the engagment and their reactions shows no remorse for their poor performance. Here's the rundown of everything: After signing, there're only weekly sync up meetings.

The first week is onboarding meeting, and meeting with the team. Week 2 is strategy meeting that's filled mostly with high level template slides, and Week 3 is streagy review with only 2 slides for the facebook ads (1 slide for really simple creative demos, and the other slide for campaign structure as their strategy).

Their facebook ad strategy is so amatuer that they are proposing the same set of creatives for each funnel. After week 3, the facebook ad manager had some family urgent matter then just disappeared in communications. Personally, family comes first to me as well, and you have my understanding, my best wishes, my whatever.

But professionally, isn't it the reason why I want to work with a big agency that your agency can absorb this kind of individual incidence, and not letting it affect your clients? At the end of the engagement, facebook ad strategy was never revised, hence never aproved. None of the facebook ads were run.

And they rejected my request of refund. On the google ad side, that's where their 150-people-agency's business originally built on. My google ad manager said she had 9 years experience managing google ads. They should be good.

So after waited for 3 weeks, although I still had concerns about their google ads settings, I was ready to give it a try - after all i naively thought we gonna start running ads and making big money from day 1, and by then it was already 3 weeks gone with nothing. We ran ads in week 4, and over the course of 8 days, it was $2k ad spend, with zero sales.

To give you a benchmark, before signing with them, I experimented with google ads myself for three weeks, and I got $2.6k ad sales with $2.4k ad spend. They get ZERO. Then I got confused, is it the lack of expertise, or the lack of commitment? (there's nothing wrong with the website settings, they tested conversion trackings, and I had couple of organic sales during the same period).

It's a quite remarkable result isn't it. I don't think any other agency that I interviewed before would be remotely close to achieve the same result with a $2k google ad spend. Disruptive Advertising is truly one of a kind, and I'm even prouder of my research skills now.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

One team lead. One google ad manager, one facebook manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The rest aren't much interesting anyways. I expressed my frustration and their senior team responded quickly and nicely, and offered to no longer have me bond to the 6 months contract, but rejected my refund request.

They charged me $3,500 for the first month of facebook ad management, where they spent the first three weeks to develop the amatuer plan, and disappeared in the forth week. And charged me the same $3,500 for the first month of google ads management, which burned another $2k ad spend with zero, again ZERO ad sales.

For those deliverables and performance, they gave me ZERO refund. I hope these experience and the price I paid would be educational to whoever's looking for the paid ads agency now.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Not much effective.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are good at saying anything nicely and deliver everything poorly.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Give me the refund at least.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on April 19, 2022.

Thank you so much for your candid feedback. It helps us understand where we fell short and how we can improve in the future. We are sorry that we weren't able to fulfill on your expectations and truly wish you the best in your future endeavors.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Assistant Vice President of Marketing at a Community Bank located in Crawford County, Arkansas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising, and what were your goals?

We moved our digital marketing business to Disruptive at the beginning of the year to bring better results than in house marketing could offer. Our goals are to grow our millennial customer base through digital marketing.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected this vendor based off a relationship we had with one of their employees from an old marketing company we use to work with. We knew how knowledgeable she was and we sought her out. On top of that, the price point is right where we wanted to be.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Our current scope this year was to focus on facebook and google ads. We wanted to start out with things we know and grow from there. Sarah put together a month by month strategy and has creative made based on our needs each month. Since this is a small community bank with 7 branches, it is typically loan services this year we are promoting.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have mostly worked with Sarah who is a Marketing Consultant but have had contact with other Disruptive employees. Plus she has had creative made for us through that department.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Each week we get an interactive report from google showing how much money we spent, impression, engagement, etc. In the first quarter we have substantially grew our facebook "likes"

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have very open conversation about where we are at each month and what upcoming projects we are going to be rolling out. Sarah is very easy to communicate with and answers all of my questions quickly.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their general knowledge of digital marketing is impeccable. I can't imagine it is easy to keep up with.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Honestly at this stage in the game, we have had zero issues and I don't foresee any in the future if it continues to go this smooth and seamless.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Content Marketing Manager at Teak & Twine, a gifting company specializing in custom gift boxes for

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising?

We hired Disruptive Advertising for LinkedIn Ad management.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found them via a blog post that listed the best ad agencies for LinkedIn ads. I compared Disruptive with three other companies and felt that the price for their included services was the best option.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Before working with Disruptive Advertising, we worked with another ad agency - first for Facebook and Instagram ads, then pivoted to LinkedIn ads with them. However, they were not very familiar with the LinkedIn platform so we didn't feel like we were utilizing the platform to its fullest potential. We onboarded Disruptive to help strategize and execute a robust LinkedIn ad program.

They developed two campaign strategies, their creative team produced very high-quality ads, and they seamlessly managed the scheduling of ad campaigns and on LinkedIn Campaign Manager. They provided monthly strategy calls with detailed presentations, biweekly meetings to discuss results and next steps, and delivered detailed reports each week.

What was the team composition?

I worked closely with a dedicated Social Marketing Consultant who led the project, but also was in touch with their director of lead gen. They were the liaison between us and their creative team, allowing for a smooth flow of communication.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The Disruptive team's ads were much more sophisticated than any previous ads we had and they led to an increased engagement rate on our LinkedIn platform.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I loved the workflow -- we were in touch via Slack for quick communications, in addition to weekly email + data studio updates, bi-weekly Zoom calls and monthly strategy calls.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their proactive approach was super impressive -- I never had to "ask" for anything -- they were always one step ahead, anticipating my needs.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

Nope!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the executive director of an online business that offers courses, workshops, and other resources in mental health from a New York Times bestselling author and psychologist.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Disruptive Advertising?

We needed someone to take our social media ads to the next level, and bring in more leads and a higher rate of conversion.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

After a bad experience from some "referrals", I just started looking online and reading reviews about companies. When I went to the website for Disruptive Advertising, it felt way more professional and "legit" than many others, plus all of the reviews I could find were glowing.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

They have a really detailed onboarding process that made me feel like they were taking the time to really understand our goals and our business. I met with several team members and had many discussions before coming up with an overall strategy and a plan for execution. After that, I know meet with my rep there every two weeks to go over everything and adjust the plan as needed. Whenever I have a question I reach out and get a response the same day.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

At least 6 people. An initial sales rep called me on the phone right after I submitted a contact form on their website. Then I had a call with him and another representative at their company. Once we decided to move forward, I had a call with a project manager and a dedicated social media advertising person - who would be my main point of contact. Since then I've also had calls with a customer satisfaction person, and another person about expanding our services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our main goal is lead generation to grow our email list. We had an initial goal of getting 500 net new names each week. Two months in and we've been at least doubling that every week - some weeks we triple it.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We already had been running ads so we had a lot of creative assets generated that we were able to pass on to them. So our workflow was pretty fast and we were able to get ads up and running fairly quickly.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their constant communication and care for our satisfaction and success. They're always wanting to make sure we're happy and our ads are doing as well as we hope - our better.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not from my standpoint.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a cosmetics and beauty company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Disruptive Advertising?

We needed someone to manage our email marketing program. Initially, we were looking to migrate platform.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They write copy and craft templates for our email campaigns. It’s a mix; sometimes they do it all, sometimes we do half, and sometimes we do it all.

What is the team composition?

We’re in touch with the person who brought us into the company, as well as Andrew (Marketing Consultant), who handles the day-to-day work. I know there are other resources, like designers, but we don’t interact with them.

How did you come to work with Disruptive Advertising?

We searched for 10 companies online in the email marketing space. One of the more important factors was that they’d worked in our industry, as well as their experience with our old platform (MailChimp) and our new platform (Klaviyo). They were also able to manage the integration at a proper cost.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $20,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since November 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Email marketing used to drive around 4% of our business income before Disruptive came onboard, and now it accounts for around 20%–25%.                                     

How did Disruptive Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

This is my favorite part of our engagement. They’re highly organized, and I really appreciate the monthly reviews they provide. These sessions provide an opportunity to discuss everything that’s on our minds, and they send a follow-up email recapping everything that arose.

Disruptive is very in-tune with us, which makes us feel that they care about us and are aware of what’s happening. We’ve never felt left out.

We have an internal project management system, but we don’t use it with Disruptive. Communication happens over Zoom, Google Drive, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve met and exceeded our expectations, doing everything we’ve hired them to do.

Disruptive shows consistent care. I’ve hired many companies and service providers that don’t care if their customers stay or leave, but Disruptive has cared throughout the engagement. This feeling is carried through their entire company, including management.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m rarely short of criticism, but I don’t have anything to say about Disruptive. Their communication is great, and our specific account representative, Andrew, is phenomenal. He answers emails like he never sleeps.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about how you’re going to measure success before you hire them. Disruptive adopted our established KPIs rather than pushing their own onto us.